(Photo: Bradley Manning Support Network / Flickr)The WikiLeaks/Bradley Manning debacle provides us with a startling example of how brutally the US government treats those brave enough to provide even a glimpse of the machinations of its imperial assault on the rest of the world. Manning and the whistleblower web site WikiLeaks are credited with providing information that helped precipitate earthshaking historic events, including the Arab Spring and the recent withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. More notably, Manning and WikiLeaks are also credited with (and criminally accused of) release of the so-called “Collateral Murder” video footage of the slaughter of Reuters reporters and other civilians by the US military in Baghdad. For his alleged role in this “crime,” Manning is enduring one of the most aggressive legal prosecutions in American history.